Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Hey everyone! How are you going with this months challenge? You still have about 10 days to enter our challenge but today I thought I would offer you some more inspiration.

One of our awesome sponsors for the month of May, who has also agreed to sponsor us for the rest of the year is a wonderful online store called Scrapbook Fantasies run by a very nice and professional lady called Alicia. Alicia has a small Design Team who I invited to be our sponsor Guest Designers here this month. They have created some lovely work for you to use as inspiration for the May challenge.

Here is a little bit about Scrapbook Fantasies.

Scrapbook Fantasies is a Scrapbooking, Papercrafts and Mixed Media store opened in March 2003 in Gladstone, Queensland. The well stocked store receives new stock daily, and supports a boutique style online store HERE. The owner Alicia runs Weekly Challanges and many other competitions giving away over $250 dollars in store vouchers every month. The GALLERY hosts thousands of customer creations, and is available for viewing without login. Parcels are posted within Australia at a flat $8.50 or the actual postage rate (whichever is the lesser), or FREE for orders over $65. International parcels are posted at the actual postage rate.

Theme: Mum

We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "Mum" however you like based on the following sketch. You can journal as little or as much as you like, but your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch.

Ideas for journalling: you as a mother, your role as a working/stay-at-home mum, sacrifices/benefits of being a mum, one day in your life as a mum, how your life has changed since being a mum, a tribute to your own mum, grandmother, guardian or someone you consider as close as your mum, your relationship with your mum or your daughter, one trait you have take from your mum, your desire to be a mum, your feelings on motherhood, what does it mean to be a mum?, what kind of mum do you want to be? , Mother's Day celebrations/traditions, your favourite Mother's Day gift given/receive etc..

Hi my name is Alicia Redshaw and I live in Gladstone, Queensland. I am married to the most amazing man, and later this year we will celebrate 20 years together. We share three beautiful and talented children, who are our reason for living the life we live. I own Scrapbook Fantasies and love that my life is full of creativity and I get the opportunity to meet new people every day. I have been creating all of my life, as I come from a long line of creative women. I couldn’t imagine life without creativity.

Hi my name is Candy and I am Married to Laurie with two grown up children, Tracy and Michael. I work in my dream job in our local Scrapbooking shop in Gladstone where I teach card classes to our lovely lady customers. My favourite product to create with is of course, flowers.

Hello my name is Margaret, but everyone calls me Mar. I wasn't going to Scrapbook, but fell victim to the addiction when my daughter opened Scrapbook Fantasies in 2003. I am a widow with two children and five grandchildren, all of whom feature in my creations. My must use on every creation is my distressing tool.

Thank you SO much to these lovely ladies for their wonderful inspiration. Don't forget to drop by their blogs to leave them some love :)

Scrapbooking Fantasies has donated TWO ribbon packs (for 2 winners) fromScrapbooking Fantasies . Each prize is valued at over $40AUS each andcontains 71 half metre lengths of ribbons, trims and lace in shades of pink, brown, cream and gold from quality brands such as Prima, Maya Road, Websters Pages, May Arts, Vandoros, Green Tara and Birch Australia, including international postage!!

Thanks so much to Scrapbooking Fantasies for their wonderful support of our blog :) I look forward to working with you the rest of this year!

Now here are the rest of the prizes from our other sponsors for May.

We are SO lucky to have so many people wanting to support our site and our challenges!

Due to this, we will change the way we give out prizes from here on. I am happy to announce that we will have more than one winner here at Once Upon A..Sketch depending on how many prizes we have to give away. SO from this month onward our Top 5 layouts will include the winner and they will all receive a prize.

Then we will also have more featured layout on top of our Top 5. There are just TOO many gorgeous layouts to limit them to just a few.

So the winner of this challenge with the most points, as voted by the Design Team will be invited to be our GUEST DESIGNER in July and create along side our Design Team. This person will also win this fabulous prize from Enjoy Scrapping ...

**You are free to combine Once Upon A..Sketch challenges with other challenges. We don't mind at all!!!

**You are allowed to enter only layouts for our challenges

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the right hand side of this blog using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

** The deadline for this challenge is midnight May 31st, Australian Eastern Standard Time . The Design Team will vote and the Top 5 layouts PLUS Top 5 featured layouts will be announced soon after the challenge has finished.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Hey there everyone! How do you like the new look of our blog? I decided to clean things up a little and I would love for you to look to the left hand side of this blog to see just how many wonderful permanent sponsors we have for the rest of 2012. That means that they will donate a prize each month for each of our challenges ! Truth is, without them we could not offer you so many prizes and although I know that many of you do not enter challenges for the prizes, I am sure everyone gets a thrill from winning something. I am so happy to be able to offer you all more prizes..in an imaginary world every entry would receive something but at least I am happy that more people than ever have a chance of winning a prize this year. Just a little thank you for your support.

So since we have gone to monthly challenges, we will still have the 1 challenge per month and still have 2 reveal dates. The Design Team has been split in 2 groups and Team A's layout examples will be shown on the 1st of the month, while Team B's layout examples will be shown on the 15th of every month. That is double the inspiration for the one challenge :)

So today, I am showing you the other super incredible half of our team!

Theme: Mum

We would like you to create a layout and interpret the theme "Mum" however you like based on the following sketch. You can journal as little or as much as you like, but your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch.

Ideas for journalling: you as a mother, your role as a working/stay-at-home mum, sacrifices/benefits of being a mum, one day in your life as a mum, how your life has changed since being a mum, a tribute to your own mum, grandmother, guardian or someone you consider as close as your mum, your relationship with your mum or your daughter, one trait you have take from your mum, your desire to be a mum, your feelings on motherhood, what does it mean to be a mum?, what kind of mum do you want to be? , Mother's Day celebrations/traditions, your favourite Mother's Day gift given/receive etc..

Hello everyone! My name is Melenia Agapides and I live in Greece (yes, the country that's usually in the headlines of the news lately). I'm a mother of two, a wife to a sweet Canadian guy and an airport authority officer. I have been scrapping layouts since August 2009. My style is constantly evolving, due to the fact that I'm the kind of person that gets bored very easily and wants to change and be renewed by trying new things often. What I always strive for when scrapping is to achieve balance and harmony in my creations both colourwise and stylewise. I'm a sucker for sketches and challenges, as they help me improve my style and scrapping skills. If you want to see more of my work you can visit my blog melenia313.blogspot.com.

Here is Melenia's layout based on our theme and sketch..

THANK you so much to Melenia, who has been very patient the last 2 months while we changed things around here . It was a pleasure having you Melenia and we hope to see you play along with our challenges again!

Please click on their name to be directed to their blog for more details. I am sure they would appreciate some love too :)

Scrapbook Fantasies is a Scrapbooking, Papercrafts and Mixed Media store opened in March 2003 in Gladstone, Queensland. The well stocked store receives new stock daily, and supports a boutique style online store HERE. The owner Alicia runs Weekly Challanges and many other competitions giving away over $250 dollars in store vouchers every month. The GALLERY hosts thousands of customer creations, and is available for viewing without login. Parcels are posted within Australia at a flat $8.50 or the actual postage rate (whichever is the lesser), or FREE for orders over $65. International parcels are posted at the actual postage rate.

******

Now here are our permanent ongoing sponsors for 2012.

C'est Magnifique Kits is a US based company whose kits predominantly feature 'hard to find' international papers from Denmark, Poland, France and many other countries. We have also featured embellishments from Australia, the UK, Poland and more. We strive to always be 'different' than other kit clubs and feel you will love our elegant and sophisticated touch.

You can find out website HERE and our forums HERE . To find out how you can join our club click HERE.

*****

Imaginarium designs, is a new chipboard company founded in 2010. It is the combined collaboration of a Mother and Son team who both work in the paper craft industry.

"Berry71bleu is an Etsy shop owned by Marivic Clifton. We specialize in custom and premade embellished hang tags, scrapbook pages, and altered gift ideas with a vintage flair. Each handmade item is unique and embellished with vintage or modern replica findings that goes perfectly with what we sell. We also accept custom orders. Pls visit our etsy shop,http://www.etsy.com/shop/berry71bleu/ or email berry71bleu@gmail.com for more information. Check out our blog, http://berry71bleu.blogspot.com/ for inspiration from our Design Team".

And the owner, Marivic Clifton is opening up a brand new etsy shop called Zeus and Zoe at the end of the month. Check out the blog HERE

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Julia Cotrim's hand made papers and fabrics (12"x12") are unique and very special.

The patterned papers are texturized and printed on a very thick cardstock.

The patterned fabrics look like canvas and coordinate with the papers.

We are SO lucky to have so many people wanting to support our site and our challenges!

Due to this, we will change the way we give out prizes from here on. I am happy to announce that we will have more than one winner here at Once Upon A..Sketch depending on how many prizes we have to give away. SO from this month onward our Top 5 layouts will include the winner and they will all receive a prize.

Then we will also have more featured layout on top of our Top 5. There are just TOO many gorgeous layouts to limit them to just a few.

So the winner of this challenge with the most points, as voted by the Design Team will be invited to be our GUEST DESIGNER in July and create along side our Design Team. This person will also win this fabulous prize from Enjoy Scrapping ...

TWO ribbon packs (for 2 winners) fromScrapbooking Fantasies . Each prize is valued at over $40AUS each andcontains 71 half metre lengths of ribbons, trims and lace in shades of pink, brown, cream and gold from quality brands such as Prima, Maya Road, Websters Pages, May Arts, Vandoros, Green Tara and Birch Australia, including international postage!!

A US$20.00 store gift card from C'est Magnifique Kit Club + FREE postage to anywhere in the world + add any other item in the store at NO extra postage cost from C'est Magnifique kit club.

Of course we do not forget our random winners. These are the prizes up for grabs for our RANDOMLY drawn entries..

**You are free to combine Once Upon A..Sketch challenges with other challenges. We don't mind at all!!!

**You are allowed to enter only layouts for our challenges

**You are also allowed to flip or rotate the sketch or alter it to suit your needs, but please make sure its still recognisable.

**Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery and link it on the right hand side of this blog using the Link tool. Please provide a direct link to your post, not your entire blog.If the link tool is down, please leave a comment on the comments section and link your layout there.

** The deadline for this challenge is midnight May 31st, Australian Eastern Standard Time . The Design Team will vote and the Top 5 layouts PLUS Top 5 featured layouts will be announced soon after the challenge has finished.

Our Permanent 2014 Sponsors. Please support them where you can

2 Crafty strives to offer affordable and versatile laser cut chipboard products to the Australian and International Craft market.2Crafty’s products are manufactured here in Australia and offer products suitable for scrapbooking, cardmaking, altered art, invitations and mixed media, and with well over 800 designs, every area has been covered.2Crafty designs are supported both locally and in the overseas market and Vanessa strives to offer the highest level of customer support, and is happy to discuss personalized orders with customers via their local scrapbooking store.2Crafty also offers a fabulous blog and Facebook page that is updated weekly with projects created from its wonderful Design Team with both local and international designers. Please click on the image to be directed to their website.

7Dots Studio

7 Dots Studio was born from dreams and for dreams. We are a European scrapbooking company. Quality of our products is our top priority. Our collections are created by very talented artists - from clean, graphic designs to mixed-media, grungy collage look. But what you can always be sure are high quality and thickness of our papers, which make them work perfectly with all kinds of media. Among our products you will find scrapbooking papers, alpha stickers, die-cut elements, collage sheets, 6x6 paper pads, element stickers and tags. We are amazingly happy and feel very blessed to see that so many crafters and artists love our designs! Please visit our blog to see awesome inspirations from our design team and our facebook profile or flickr gallery to share your projects. Please click on the image to be directed to their website

The Flying Unicorn Online store

Flying Unicorn.. it’s about One of a Kind. We offer an incredible selection of products for all paper crafting artists. Our Kit of the Month if filled with the latest and greatest and includes an off the page project to keep your creative muse flowing! Our forums, a hot and happening place which includes monthly challenges, tips, techniques and friendships that last! Please click on image to be directed to the website.

13arts

13 arts - Polish company created by Aida Domisiewcz aka Ayeeda. We provide original scrapbooking papers and mixed media products: water inks, pearl and chalk mists, water paints, many types of microspheres, acrylic mediums. We constantly work on new products to give you best scrapbooking and mixed media supplies for your artwork. Please visit our online shop (we ship internationally). Please click on the image to be directed to their website

Scrapbook Fantasies online store

Scrapbook Fantasies (www.scrapbookfantasies.com.au) is a Scrapbooking, Papercrafts and Mixed Media retailer that opened in November 2002 in Gladstone, Queensland. The well stocked store receives new stock daily, and supports a boutique style online store. The owner Alicia runs Weekly Challenges and many other competitions giving away 100’s of prizes and vouchers every year. The GALLERY hosts thousands of customer creations, and is available for viewing without login. Parcels are posted within Australia $8 flat rate. International parcels are posted at the actual postage rate. Please click on the image above to be directed to our website

Wiff Of Joy stamps

Whiff of Joy, known for it's high quality rubber stamps, supporting your creative tooth for 5 years. During this time, our product variety has grown. Metal dies, paperflowers, ribbon paper...Whiff of Joy became a one stop shopping boutique. Not to mention the great customer service and fair prices. Have a look at our range - there is something for everyone.Please click on the image to be directed to their website

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Lindy’s Stamp Gang offers a large variety in products, from Stamps to Sprays and Stains to Embossing Powders and Mica Powders. Tracey does a tremendous job filling orders, shipping as quickly as possible, and listening to her customers. You can find Lindy’s Stamp Gang on FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest and Blogger! Please click on the image to be directed to their website

Die-namites Dies

Die~Namites Dies exploded onto the market in 2013. Our thin metal dies are made in America, and are compatible with most die-cutting machines on the market today. Die-Namites dies will cut cardstock, patterned paper, fun foam, wool blend felts, craft foils, handmade papers and MORE!! Shimming may be required for some thicker materials, just add one at a time and test frequently. Stop by our blog, to see what the Design Team is up to, whether it’s playing along with the monthly Die~Namites Sketch Challenge and Dare, working on a card, or sharing a Mixed Media project.